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3D Printing News Briefs: February 21, 2020

In today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we’re talking about new products and materials, an industry event, 3D printed electronics, and education. 3Doodler announced a new product, and Essentium will be showcasing two new materials at RAPID + TCT. The 4th annual AM Cluster of Ohio conference is coming up in July, and nScrypt is microdispensing 50um dots for 3D printed electronics. Finally, Penn State University is investing in Roboze technology.

3Doodler Introduces New 3D Build & Play

At the New York Toy Fair, February 22-25 at Manhattan’s Jacob Javits Center, 3Doodler will be showcasing its latest device – the 3D Build & Play, perfect for preschoolers and kindergartners to use. The pen was designed for users as young as four years old, and introduces growing children to 3D printing technology in a way that promotes cognitive and fine motor skills development, hands-on learning, story telling, and three-dimensional thinking. The 3D Build & Play is kid-safe, extruding low-heat, BPA-free, non-toxic, biodegradable plastic, and comes with a story-based Activity Guide so parents and kids can create together. Currently available for pre-order, 3D Build & Play will have an MSRP of $29.99, and major retailers, like Amazon, are also expected to carry the product in Q2 2020. Visit 3Doodler in Booth #2771 at the New York Toy Fair to learn more.

“3D Build & Play brings the creative fun of our Start pen without the learning curve for the youngest users. The system we have developed, that lets kids crank and create in 3D, is a major benefit for parents looking to improve their children’s basic motor skills. The included molds make it easy to create 3D objects by simply filling and popping them out. There’s nothing on the market today that makes 3D creation this simple or fast for young creators,” said 3Doodler’s CEO Daniel Cowen.

Essentium’s New Materials for High-Temperature Applications

At RAPID + TCT 2020 in Anaheim this spring, 3D printing solutions provider Essentium will introduce new ULTEM AM9085F and ABS materials for high-temperature industrial AM applications. These high-performance materials, which will be showcased on the company’s High Speed Extrusion platform at the event, provide high strength and have excellent resistance to heat and chemicals at high temperatures, so they can be used for applications in the aerospace, automotive, industrial, and medical industries.

According to a survey commissioned by Essentium, 51% of executives believe that the high cost of materials is a major obstacle when it comes to adopting 3D printing for large-scale production purposes. The new ULTEM AM9085F and ABS materials were created to give manufacturers a more cost-effective solution when compared to expensive closed-system materials. Learn more at Essentium’s Booth #3400 at RAPID + TCT in Anaheim, CA, April 20-23, 2020.

4th Annual Additive Manufacturing Cluster of Ohio Conference

The Additive Manufacturing Cluster of Ohio, powered by organizations such as America Makes and the Youngstown Business Incubator, has announced that its 4th annual conference will take place this summer in Cleveland. Cluster members work together to create a supply chain of interconnected institutions and businesses to advance regional growth in 3D printing. This conference, to be held on Thursday, July 30, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Cleveland Rockside, will be the first cluster event of 2020, and will give Ohio manufacturers of multiple business models and sizes perspectives on available opportunities for adopting 3D printing into their process chain over the next five years.

The website states, “The program will look at similarities and differences across several selected manufacturer types and will identify strategies ranging from low to high risk. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies and information about regional resources to help them remain competitive in the evolving manufacturing landscape.”

nScrypt Working with 3D Printed Electronics

Orlando company nScrypt is working with precision microdispensing, an additive method of dispensing pastes, inks, and other fluid materials, to create adhesive dots with volumetric control, in the 50 micron range, for 3D printed electronics and flexible hybrid electronics (FHE). Microdispensing gets much closer to the substrate surface when compared to methods like jetting, and the closer the nozzle is to the surface, the finer the features of the 3D printed parts. The team used the nScrypt SmartPump, a silicone adhesive, a conical pen tip, and Heraeus SAC305-8XM8-D Type IX solder paste, and tested the consistency and repeatability of ~50µm Type IX solder and adhesive dots.

These tests showed a consistent average dot diameter of 51.24 microns, with a 6.42 micron (13%) standard deviation. These results support the fabrication of 3D printed electronics through the use of direct digital manufacturing (DDM), which allows printing to both planar substrates and the non-planar world of Printed Circuit Structures, which prints the housing or structure of an electronic device as well as placing the electronics conformally. In the future, the team plans to conduct a larger solder and adhesive dot study, in order to test required downtime, long-term reliability, and the frequency of clogging.

Penn State University Invests in Roboze Technology 

Penn State, a 3D printing leader through its Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D), has invested in a new FFF solution in order to expand its AM capabilities. The ROBOZE One+400 Xtreme 3D printer, which was designed to create high performing, functional finished parts in advanced composite materials, will help the university increase its development of high performance plastics for 3D printing, and will be housed in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Students will be able to test out new polymers on the system, and develop new formulations to provide 3D printed parts with multi-functionality. These parts will be used to advance research in applications like chemical reactors.

“ROBOZE One+400 Xtreme will be used to examine novel polymers to help to fundamentally understand the 3D printing process and as a tool to enable custom equipment more cost effectively than can be obtained with machining metals while also allowing for designs not possible with traditional manufacture. The ROBOZE One+400 Xtreme will allow Penn State to leverage its expertise in materials science, engineering and characterization to enable new solutions to problems through additive manufacturing,” said Professor Bryan D. Vogt from the Department of Chemical Engineering.

“The ability to use custom filaments and control the print processing was a critical factor in selecting ROBOZE. The flexibility allowed by ROBOZE along with its excellent printing capabilities is well aligned with the discovery-oriented research mission of the university to expand knowledge and its application. Moverover, our prior 3D printer had issues printing high temperature engineering plastics like PEEK with severe deformation of the structure generally observed. After challenges with printing PEEK with standard belt driven systems, the novel direct drive approach with the ROBOZE was an added bonus.”

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The post 3D Printing News Briefs: February 21, 2020 appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

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3Doodler Introduces Mobile App, 3D Printing Pen Activity Kits, and Wider Distribution for EDU Learning Packs

Earlier this week, 3Doodler attended the 2019 Toy Fair New York, and brought along the latest additions to its EDU, Start and Create product lines to the event in Manhattan. Last year at the Toy Fair, the company debuted its new STEM Series of products designed around its Start 3D printing pen, and this year 3Doodler is not only debuting its newest lines, but also a special surprise – its first Mobile App, which is now available for download in both the App Store and on Google Play.

“Over the last few years, we’ve emphasized the ability to make a phone case using a 3Doodler pen. But with the app, the 3Doodler’s capability to work with your device makes it easier than ever to create. It’s also more environmentally friendly than printing out a stencil,” said 3Doodler Co-Founder Maxwell Bogue.

The new 3Doodler App, which will be launched in Q1 of this year, will initially have over ten tutorials and projects available, with more added each week. It also includes stencils, so you can actually use your device – be it a smartphone, iPad, or tablet – as a canvas for 3Doodling. Thanks to a seamless UX experience, the app is perfect for helping kids and adults alike make their own 3D projects in a mobile-friendly format.

3Doodler is also focusing even more on education this year, and its EDU Learning Packs, only available through its website at first, are now being distributed, at prices ranging from $349-$1,199, across several major e-commerce and retail sites, such as Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. The kits were designed with feedback from teachers, and come with either 6 or 12 pens, lesson plans, a year’s supply of filament, and exclusive teaching materials. They are available for both the Start and the Create+ pens.

“Our goal is to become as ubiquitous as a Crayola or LEGO in terms of being synonymous with creativity and development from an early age. Our mission is to inspire and enable everyone to create, and firmly believe that education is the proper vehicle for this mission,” said 3Doodler’s CEO Daniel Cowen. “We’ve already seen countless examples of how 3Doodler can positively impact a classroom, and have now started to structure our company to meet that demand.”

Since 3Doodler was founded six years ago, its products have been used in over 8,000 classrooms, by more than 400,00 students, all around the world. In that time, crowdfunded educational platform DonorsChoose.org has also sent 3Doodler kits to over 1,000 middle- and low-income US classrooms. But now that the 3D printing pens are available through more well-known sites, this access can increase even further, providing such benefits to schoolchildren as:

  • Help teachers diversify teaching methods
  • Improve student concentration levels
  • Stimulate different learning methods for both kinesthetic and visual learners
  • Increase opportunities for special needs students
  • Level the playing field between male and female students
3Doodler’s Head of EDU Leah Wyman said, “In the classroom, 3Doodler enables hands-on, fun, easy-to-use experiences that create a lasting impact on every student. We’ve seen the raw and transformative effect of 3Doodler in classrooms of every size, and in every subject, whether in private schools, low-income schools, after school programs, makerspaces, libraries and more.”

In addition to the new app and wider availability for its EDU Learning Packs, 3Doodler is introducing two new Create+ Pen Sets to go along with its popular 3Doodler Create+ Essential Pen Set. The $149.99 Master Creator Pen Set includes a Create+ pen, six packages of filament, a Nozzle Set, Canvas, Project Book, and DoodlePad, while the Deluxe Pen Set for $99.99 includes four packages of filament, a DoodlePad, and a Nozzle Set. Additionally, the company’s Make Your Own Canvas Bookend Kit, with an SRP of just $29.99, lets users decorate and personalize with the Create+.

At this week’s Toy Fair, 3Doodler also debuted two new family-friendly kits for its Start and Create product lines: the ALPHADOODS Character Kit and the ROBOSUMO Activity Kit.


The former, with an SRP of $19.99, is a fun way to make your own animated ALPHADOOD action figure to take on adventures, including ones of the social media and stop motion variety. Each kit comes with two plastic packs, two ALPHADOODS canvases, a tracing sheet, and an activity guide.

The $24.99 ROBOSUMO kit is an easy entry point into robotics for kids, where they can build their own mini sumo battle-bots and later fight them in the Sumo Battle Arena, which is included in the kit. The kit also includes two DoodleMolds, two packs of plastic, two motors, and an activity guide.

Finally, three more of the company’s fun and imaginative Activity Kits, which were originally brought to the market in Q4 2018, were officially debuted to retailers at the Toy Fair this week:

  • ANATIMO Activity Kit, $19.99
  • SCIENTIFICO Activity Kit, $29.99
  • ROBODINO Activity Kit, $29.99

Check out the funny video below for an introduction into the ALPHADOOD Character Kit:

Discuss this news and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

[Images provided by 3Doodler]